Posts Tagged ‘ebola cases’

Newscast Media NAIROBI—Kenya’s health ministry said on Thursday that it has
instituted several measures to ensure that any Ebola cases that come to the country
are quickly detected and necessary actions are taken to curb further spread in the
country.

Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the ministry has also issued an alert to
all the points of entry with a request to screen all people who have visited Guinea
where the hemorrhagic fever was first detected in the last three weeks.
The statement comes as health officials in Guinea are working to contain an outbreak
of Ebola that has killed at least 60 people and sickened dozens more, according to
the World Health Organization (WHO).

The outbreak is spreading through forests in the West African country’s southeast,
and may have crossed borders into Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO said.
“These people are required to reveal when they travelled to Guinea, areas in which
visited and how long they stayed there,” Macharia said in a statement issued in
Nairobi.

“They are also required to inform the health officials if they have any symptoms that
have been listed. All cases that will be considered as suspected cases will be isolated
and investigated immediate in order to rule out Ebola HF,” he added.

The virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, other bodily
fluids or organs of infected persons or animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys
and antelopes, and it has an incubation period of two to 21 days.

Sufferers can experience fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a
sore throat, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, rashes and impaired kidney and liver
function. In the most severe cases, the virus leads to both external and internal
bleeding.